Similarity in mycorrhizal communities associating with two widespread terrestrial orchids decays with distance

Aim: Interactions with mycorrhizal fungi are increasingly recognized as an important factor underlying the distribution and abundance of orchid species. However, the geographic distribution of orchid mycorrhizal fungi (OMF) and how their communities vary over large geographical areas are less well understood. Because climatic and environmental similarity may decrease with geographical distance or because some OMF have limited dispersal capabilities, similarities in orchid mycorrhizal communities can be expected to decrease with increasing distances separating orchid populations. However, up till now empirical evidence is largely lacking. Location: Eurasia Taxa: Gymnadenia conopsea (L.) R. Brown and Epipactis helleborine (L.) Crantz Methods: High-throughput sequencing was used to perform a cross-continental comparison of OMF that associate with two widespread Eurasian terrestrial orchids, Epipactis helleborine and Gymnadenia conopsea. Both phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic measures of...